


Drowning

by CartoonLover



Series: Set After [5]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Angst, Episode: s02e03 The Ballad of Duke Baloney!, Gen, Mentions of Drowning, Panic Attack, both physically and metaphorically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-28 00:18:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17776952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CartoonLover/pseuds/CartoonLover
Summary: He's Drowning and no one seems to notice.Set After The Ballad of Duke Baloney.





	Drowning

**Author's Note:**

> I swear to you guys this is not a Louie centric series.

Everyone's attention is on Webby when they first get back to the mansion and that's fine, she almost drowned after all but it means that Louie is pushed to the background. No one even seems to notice him. And again that's fine because Webby had just gone through something super traumatic so he just ignores the voice in the back of his head that said he had too. 

He doesn't matter right now. 

That's fine, that has to be fine because as much as he's hurting Webby's hurting a lot worse. It isn't like this is a big deal anyway, he isn't the one who almost died. Holy crap, she almost died! How is that just now hitting him?! He shakes that off, whatever his thoughts on this situation are aren't important right now. No matter how scared he is... 

She has to be so much more scared, she went through it after all. He just can't understand why he's so affected by this, like he said earlier he isn't the one who almost died but he was there and he will never forget the look on her face after Glomgold pulled her over. It would haunt his dreams. 

And it does, that night he wakes up struggling to keep in a scream and tries in vain to hold back his tears. He quietly attempts to calm himself down, he can't let his brothers know something is wrong. They're worried enough about Webby as it is, and they had reason to be but they didn't have reason to be worried about him he's fine. Really, he's fine. The nightmares will pass, he knows they will and so will everything else it'll just take some time. 

He just wishes he could get back to sleep. 

The next morning he's no better, not that he's surprised but he is tired. So very tired. When he was finally able to go back to sleep he had another nightmare, and then another, basically he's whole night was filled with nightmares! So it's no question that when he gets to the dining room table all he wants to do is go back to bed but he knows he can't, people will think something's up then and they can't know something's up. 

And that's for it stays for the next week. 

No one knows something's up and that's fine, Webby is still way more important than he is. But then she starts to get better and they still don't notice. He starts getting worse because he has no way of knowing how to deal with this and they still don't notice. He begins to get a feeling of what Webby went through except he doesn't almost drown, he drowns and he drowns hard. He becomes so consumed in what happened that's all that he can think about and it overwhelms him, so much. 

Suddenly he can't breathe, he can't do anything but get lost in his thoughts and succumb to his feelings, and he's so confused and overwhelmed that it hurts. But he's not alone, all of a sudden there are two people in front of him, two people he knows very well worriedly trying to get him to calm down, to breathe. And he tries, he tries so hard but he can't he's in too deep.

They don't give up though, they try harder Louie couldn't fall apart because they weren't paying attention to him, they will never forgive themselves if that happens. But it doesn't happen, slowly but surely Louie pulls himself together and finally calms down. None of them move from their spots on the hall floor they're much too tired, they knew they would probably be there for a while. 

Louie's brothers wait for him to start talking, it's the least they can do after not seeing what he's been going through the past week. Because Webby was hurting but he was there too and it couldn't have been easy for him to see that. They know that now and they're gonna do everything they can to help him through this. They weren't there for him before but what is most important is that they're there now. And they aren't letting him deal with this alone. 

"I know it's not the same as actually almost drowning but watching someone you care about almost die..." 

"It was just as traumatic for you as it was her." Huey reassures him and this is what Louie was missing, someone or someones to make him feel okay. Like he had a perfectly good reason to still be hung up over this. 

"I just, I never thought Glomgold of all people would be capable of doing something like this. He almost, he could've," Louie bursts into tears finally allowing himself to deal with this and his brothers tightly hold him. The two of them swear that if they ever see Glomgold they will make him pay, for doing that to Webby and for putting Louie through this. 

Huey carefully makes Louie look at him once he calms down a little. "The thing to remember is that she's here, she's alive. You," He points at him. "You saved her. And both of you will get past this."  

"We weren't here for you before." Dewey adds on. "But we're here now. We are gonna do whatever it takes to help you through this." 

Louie weakly smiles at them, "You guys are the best." They both look down. "No, seriously you are. It may have taken you a while to notice but you did and you're here now, that's what matters." He can't let them be down about themselves, it isn't their faults they didn't see it before, they were busy helping Webby and he was vigorously hiding it. He doesn't hold it against them mostly due to having other thoughts on his mind right now. But he doesn't blame them for not seeing something he was trying to hide. 

"We'll all get through this." Dewey promises. They will eventually be okay again, Webby and Louie will get past this traumatic experience and Huey and Dewey will stop beating themselves up. It will be a long road and it won't be easy but they will do it and they'll be better for it. 

* * *

Webby finds him standing near the pool later on. He doesn't hear her walk up so it's a surprise when he finally notices her. She stands next to him close enough to touch but not quite there and they both watch the houseboat calmly move with the wind. It's relaxing in a way, the steady back and forth. But it does nothing to put either of their minds at ease. 

"I don't think I'll ever be able to swim again." She quietly admits and he gets that, he doesn't think he'll be able to get in any sort of water for a while but they're both strong and he knows they'll eventually get back in. 

"Baby steps." He offers just as quiet. He knows there are a thousand things she wants to say to him but he won't let her, she has no reason to be guilty. But he knows she does so he wraps an arm around her to show that it is okay. They are okay. Well, they themselves aren't but their standing with each other is, that will never change. 

"I know the others think you're better but how are you really feeling?" Because he was there and he knows you can't get over something like that in a week. 

She shrugs and doesn't answer, she doesn't know. But that's okay because he doesn't know how he's feeling either and yeah that's confusing but better confusion than nothing. He wouldn't know how to deal with nothing, he probably wouldn't care but everyone else would and that's worse than anything he's feeling. So no matter how frustrating confusing is he's gonna stick with it until they all get better. 

Louie doesn't like to think of himself as broken but that's how he is right now and he's not the only one. He doesn't have to look at Webby to know she's just as broken as he is and it's very comforting in a bittersweet way. This whole thing is bugging him more than he cares to admit and there's a small bitter part of him that's angry it took this long to even begin to get dealt with. But he doesn't blame Webby, he could never blame Webby and he doesn't blame his brothers either. He doesn't know who he blames exactly, most likely himself. 

It doesn't matter now though, it's getting dealt with, that's what matters and that's what he will focus on. He has to. He moves closer to Webby but doesn't remove his arm from around her side, it's comforting to him, keeps him grounded. And he needs to be grounded right now, he may have another panic attack otherwise. She moves closer to him as well and he can tell she feels the same way. 

They have to stick together right now they're the only ones that get each other and they both know it. And that's okay, they're gonna help each other get through this like they should have done from the beginning. Because they're the ones that went through it and they are gonna come out stronger for it. 


End file.
